Bearing in mind that Republicans can’t really shape their party, and that corporate America has played a large part in whipping up the ‘grassroots’ sentiments of the Republican religious and assorted right, I don’t necessarily think that this is a reason why Republican net roots haven’t developed.

Plenty of US Right wingers sit and snipe online. I think the difference is that the right has control of the official media in the USA: they don’t need to snipe because they can turn on Fox and Bill O Reilly will do it for them.

Also, I’m inclined to query the extent to which Netroots has actually triggered a shift in the Democratic Party, and do not agree with the use of Webb and Lamont as examples. Lamont was a billionaire who financed his way into politics, only to lose the election. I don’t know much about Jim Webb but I suspect that if you look at the Electoral Commission website, the donations will be from corporate sponsors as much as from normal people.

What sort of sucess has Dean had as DNC chairman in rebuilding Democratic structures? Have the state Democratic organisations supported the strategy?

Another question is, given that your argument that the netroots have developed because of a lack of local party structures, we have to ask – do the corporate Democrats in the party really want to give the netroots an oppotunity to organise outside of the internet?